Need a little something to get your brain in gear?  Here are a few writing prompts to do just that.

Consider a prompt, think about it for no more than two or three minutes, and then start writing for about 7 to 15 minutes.

That’s the first thing Montclair Write Group writers do at Saturday sessions when we gather to write to prompts.

We typically use short phrases as prompts, but a prompt can be anything, really. It’s not the prompt that matters; it’s what the process sparks.

A prompt with a time constraint jolts a writer into action. Ideas or styles that surprise even the writers coming up with them often pop up in our sessions – things our writers only realize on the spot might be important or interesting enough to an audience, or to themselves, to write about. Our writers generate anything from reflective journal-like pieces and short anecdotes to zany sci-fi scenes and – more often than one might reasonably expect – nearly-final short pieces of fiction or poetry.

The second thing Montclair Write Group writers do on Saturdays is read what we’ve come up with aloud to each other. We can’t duplicate that fantastic experience online, but perhaps you’d like to try a prompt or two on your own. Below we provide 10 prompts that worked especially well for the group in 2016.

Enjoy. –Rose Blessing, Montclair Write Group Member and Free Write Session Co-facilitator, January 2017

Writing Prompts

On horseback in the desert

A stirring rendition

50,000 supporters

Sand and sea and sun

Don’t call me ever again

Stuck on the ship

They argued about money

Moose antlers on the wall

The hand-me down

What to trust a stranger with